This website provides substitutes with practical advice on surviving in a classroom. Most of the tips, websites and lesson ideas are more suitable for elementary or middle school, but many of the tips are practical in any classroom, any grade and any subject matter. New teachers and those headed into student teaching would be wise to read it, as well.

Use this website to "clear out the cobwebs" in your students' minds. The site offers several interactive logic activities. Many require no reading. A few examples include Tetris, Rubik's Cube, Sliders, Towers and more. All activities require JAVA and FLASH. You can get both from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.

In the Classroom

Use one of these on an interactive whiteboard as a brain warm-up at the beginning of class or as student enter the room. If you have a difficult group in a study hall, this site could keep them busy in a positive way. Substitutes will also love it! Include this link in your class's newsletter, classroom computer, or teacher web page for extra challenges and enrichment. Teachers of gifted can challenge their students to write "how to" directions for how to solve these puzzles, once they have figured them out!

Build higher level thinking skills, especially flexibility in how students visualize and interpret a brief story. This challenging and interactive website has Lateral puzzles, both "active" and "solved." Registration is required if you guess an answer to one of the "active" puzzles. Registration is not necessary for reading the puzzles and clues. This site gives a lateral puzzle, and then the readers can ask questions to the original poster. Some of the "solved" puzzles could be used with younger students. However, the site is geared towards middle school and high school aged students.

In the Classroom

Challenge your class with a "lateral puzzle of the day". This site would be perfect for your gifted students or to get everyone thinking at the start of class. Be sure to include the link on your web page! For an extra challenge when students have mastered the puzzles, ask them to analyze how they work and write some of their own.

Find a problem of the week for elementary, middle and high school (algebra) as well as archived past problems on this simple site. You can submit your correct answer and get your name listed as a winner for that week. New problems appear on Mondays.

In the Classroom

Include this link on your teacher web page or start class with it each week on a projector, giving extra credit to those whose names appear on the web page by the weekend!

This very simple site, created by an anonymous puzzle-lover, is a treasury for logic problems and lateral thinking puzzles to use in your classroom or beyond. Click on the puzzle type you want. Use them as brain warm-ups in a math or science class before venturing into problem-solving or inquiry process or simply to engage the brains before starting any activity. There are different levels of logic and different types of lateral thinking puzzles, each with a hint before revealing the complete answer. These puzzles would also be useful for gifted enrichment.

In the Classroom

If you don't have time to spend on these in class as often as you would like, print out a single lateral thinking or logic problem each week for your bulletin board and let the students argue about it all week. Or include this link on your teacher website for the students to access outside of class. This site is a life-saver for your study hall the day before a vacation!

The Lemelson Center at MIT offers a weekly profile of an inventor - some famous, many less so. If you're doing a unit on scientists, creativity, or economic/industrial growth, this site can help students understand how many advances are the result of small, incremental improvements rather than revolutionary breakthroughs.

In the Classroom

Use the inventor of the week section as an activator at the beginning of every week in a science or Physics classroom. This could be used as an activator over the interactive whiteboard or as a learning center or station. This could be used every week or before inventive projects, serving as a motivator!

With such poor results as a nation on geography testing, we all should try these geography games to build student knowledge of U.S. and world geography. Students can click on the region of the world and practice at different levels of difficulty. Even adults can find a challenge. Offered in a "dial up version" for those accessing the sites from a slower connection. Note: the non-dial-up pages require FLASH. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.

In the Classroom

Be sure to put a link for these online games and quizzes on your teacher web page for the summer and throughout the school year. Students can use them to practice for your geography quizzes or as extra challenges. The different levels of dificulty will allow you to differentiate your instruction easily.

These six puzzles, involving virtual matchsticks, require some clever out-of-the-box thinking. Follow the directions to create a specific number of equal rectangles by moving a limited number of matches. It's tougher than it looks. No hints given!

In the Classroom

This is a great find for gifted students. Share the site on an interactive whiteboard or projector, and allow students to work on the puzzles in teams. Have the teams compete to see who can solve the puzzles the fastest, or complete the most. This site is tricky, but is an excellent enrichment activity for a unit on logic or geometry.

Any Sudoku fans in your classroom? Send them to this site that provides problem-solving techniques, helpful for successfully conquering some of the most fiendish puzzles. Learn about crosshatching, slicing and dicing, and "penciling in." Discover the five rules that stress finding numbers for squares, rather than finding squares for umbers. This truly is a site for the Sudoku aficionados among us.

The challenge and creativity of the original board game comes alive in this virtual version. Review the available tools that can undo, redo, withdraw, sort, and even save an uncompleted game. Although this "solitaire" Scrabble game misses the group interaction of the traditional version, it provides a great opportunity for creative, independent thought related to spelling and vocabulary.

Most students are familiar with the traditional Mankala game that uses a rectangular wooden board and stones, but this online version adds a few interesting options and variations. Read the instructions carefully! Students can play against the computer or with a partner.

In the Classroom

Add this mind-stretching game of strategy to a unit on African history and culture. A nice activity to add to a celebration of Black History Month.

This collection of puzzles, riddles, brainteasers, and interactive tests challenges students to think outside of the box and improve their analytical skills while having fun. Puzzles are graded by level of difficulty and the amount of math needed to arrive at a solution.

Make this virtual jigsaw puzzle site available for those inevitable moments of "downtime" in the classroom. Choose a topic from the gallery (preferably one that relates to your curriculum), select a level of difficulty (number of pieces), and start the challege. These puzzles are not only a lot of fun, but good exercises for developing spatial skills. The pop-ups are annoying but can be blocked by Windows XP. Allow time for the site to load. Check the Frequently Asked Questions link (at the bottom of the page)for troubleshooting if you are having difficulty making the puzzles work.

In the Classroom

Combine a brain-warming activity with a bit of review, and create your own jig-saws for students to solve! First, access the section entitled "Turn your photos into puzzles," and select an image pertinent to a specific unit and upload it to the site. Once the jigsaw puzzle has been created, have students open the puzzle on individual computers and compete to see who can get the best time putting the image back together! The best images to use would be diagrams, or model images of a particular object. This site works amazingly well for science classes were students need to be familiar with specific images. An example would be have anatomy students re-construct skeletal images, etc. A clever way to get their minds thinking!

In the Classroom

Use this site over the interactive whiteboard or projector as a competitive game for teams. Have student groups select team representatives to compete in any one of the topics. This would be a great way to review at the end of the year, or as a fun activity during the downtime between Standards of Learning assessments and the last day of school.

This challenging, interactive word game is more than a "just-for-fun" activity. Students must use strategy and vocabulary skills to make changes to a starting word - one letter at a time - and form a new word. Each word morph can be solved in 10 moves or less, but must be completed within 5 minutes. A purposeful and competitive "filler" to add to a language arts class.

In the Classroom

Use this site as a learning station for students who may finish work early, and need something productive to do to avoid bothering other students. To make it competitive, keep a record board near the computer where students can log their high scores. Competing against each other may make students more interested to play for a new minutes at a time, and less likely to disturb others in testing situations.

For students approaching that ever-important College Board test, this site is an invaluable resource. Features include a "question of the day," a series of practice questions that address math, critical reading, and writing skills, a review of the dreaded essay question, and a full-length practice test that can be downloaded and printed after completing free registration.

This virtual manipulative challenges students to use deductive reasoning to find which of the eight coins is counterfeit. A virtual balance scale is provided, and students must complete the mission with a minimum number of weighings. Increase the number of coins for an added challenge.

These ten interactive optical illusions demonstrate how the eye can be easily deceived and give students a chance to question and analyze what they're actually seeing. Plug this into a science or psychology lesson and let the discussions begin.

Experience an unforgettable game of chess with this interactive site that pits visitors against an artificial intelligence program. After moving your chess piece, watch your opponent's thought processes evolve as a visible network on the board. This is an awesome activity for students that truly enjoy a challenge.

Whether your students are learning how to spell the fifty states, reviewing chemistry terms, or trying out their foreign language skills, this collection of thematic hang-man games can provide a fun way to practice! Select a topic (most are curriculum-related, a few are just for fun) and try the interactive games, or print out the blank hang-man worksheets and create your own.